Raised a Pack Rat

I love my Mom.  She is a strong woman that raised her children nearly alone... And her children are all strong women today.

My Mom

As I declutter, sort, organize, throw away, and donate massive amounts of stuff, I have begun to ask myself where my clutter bug, pack rat tendencies began.  Honestly... I didn't stand a chance!

I'll start with my mother.  She has always had stuff.  It might not be valuable, but we carted it around various moves during my childhood.  My husband and I have helped my mother move a few times over the years, and can honestly say she has a lot of stuff.  I mean no disrespect.  She is sentimental, like me, and gives value to stuff... Even when she probably shouldn't.  Since I have also assigned emotional value to things my entire life, I understand the tendency, even if God is changing my heart now. My mother wasn't alone...

Her mother, my grandmother, also lived her stuff.  A Depression-era girl, my grandmother saved stuff.  When she passed away a couple years ago, going through her stuff was amazing.  She had pictures upon pictures (no surprise where I get that tendency).  I laughed when I inherited her bread box and a drawer in it was filled with twist-ties, the kind that used to be on loaves of bread before the plastic clips.  Grandma even wrote in a story about her life about her love of little knickknacks.  As a girl she would love getting them all out and putting them around, but her mother (my great-grandmother) would put them all away because she didn't want them out. 

My father isn't much better either. His house may not be a cluttered mess, but he has a "well-stocked" garage.  His mother and father (my grandparents) were also raised in the Great Depression.  My grandfather could have started a used bike shop with all the bikes in his garage that he had fixed.  He went to the flea market every week when he retired, selling his handmade or refurbished "treasures."  My grandmother had less clutter, but she didn't waste either.  She once used white shoe polish on my Keds (canvas shoes) to brighten them up and make them once again white.

Obviously being a clutter bug seems to run in the family.   Learned behavior?  Maybe, but I can also see a link to family members that grew up with little material goods and were taught never to waste, so they held on to everything... Even twist ties. 

Where does this leave me?  Making my own path, learning as I go, and praying for God's guidance.  I have had my own share of hard times, though nothing like the Great Depression.  That mentality of saving stuff "just in case" is easily developed and difficult to release.  It's easily passed on to children.  They teach the lifestyle of holding onto stuff to their children and a pattern is set. 

I doubt my mother will change her habits and patterns and get rid of a lot of her stuff.  She has been living like this for so long that she doesn't even see the clutter any longer, even when it stresses her to the max.  

I am in a different place in my life.  Two of my children have moved out and married.  One daughter is in her final year of high school.  I would rather make memories and be with my husband and children than have more stuff. 

It's humorous.  One of my most fun pastimes had been to hit the yard sales and resale shops.  While some things may interest me, like clothes when needed, I don't need more stuff.  

Maybe I need different pastimes.